Chapter 210
The King of Heinkel
Ferda quietly lowered his head and paid his respects.
“First, I must apologize for what happened with your son. I never truly intended to insult the dead.”
“You… already knew?”
“Yes.”
“And despite that, you left his father with agony great enough to tear him apart.”
“It was necessary.”
Duke Yurei glared at him with resentment.
Yet the fury in his eyes was not as intense as it had been when they first met.
“Yes, I suppose it was necessary. I was the only fool in that affair, after all. I would prefer this to be the last time we speak of it.”
“Of course. Please, have a seat.”
Duke Yurei sat where Ferda indicated, and Ferda poured him a drink.
The first taste of alcohol he had enjoyed in a long time was remarkably sweet.
“Now, tell me what you intend to accomplish by setting me free.”
“The Heinkel Kingdom and the Arken Empire currently stand on the verge of war. I assume you are aware of that.”
“I have heard it more times than I care to remember.”
“We would like you to deliver a speech and demand an emergency session of the Grand Council.”
“An emergency session…”
It was the most effective way to defuse the threat of war.
That was precisely why Duke Yurei found the proposal so strange.
“You are a member of the Empire yourself. Why would you want such an outcome?”
“If I considered myself an imperial citizen above all else, your death would be the ideal result, Duke Yurei. The Empire would gain valuable territory.”
Duke Yurei snorted.
“So a traitor is hiding within the Empire.”
“You may call me whatever you wish. I am here for the sake of my fiancée.”
“Does the Empire’s will not align with the will of Her Highness Valdrova?”
“They are attempting to begin this war by treating the name of demons lightly. Demons must be eradicated from this continent. If their existence is reduced to nothing more than a pretext for personal ambition, it will only create even greater chaos.”
“…A convincing argument.”
Ferda answered without hesitation, and Duke Yurei studied him.
There was an uncanny depth of experience in those eyes.
“At the very least, you do not seem like the sort of man who would conspire with that damned grand duke.”
“Of course not.”
Duke Yurei covered his face with one hand and thought for a moment before speaking.
“First, I must send a letter. I need to inform the Heinkel Kingdom that I am alive.”
“I will make the necessary preparations.”
Ferda provided him with pen and paper, and Duke Yurei began to write.
He explained that he had escaped safely with the aid of the Bunny Swallows.
He made no mention of Ferda.
Leaving such a thing in writing would be little different from repaying kindness with betrayal.
He concluded the letter by saying that although he was currently under protection, his physical condition was poor.
“Send this to the Heinkel Kingdom.”
“Understood.”
A messenger mounted a horse and rode away.
All that remained was to wait for a response.
“Let us talk while we wait, Regent Ferda.”
Duke Yurei poured himself another drink.
“When your people learn that you threw away such an excellent opportunity to expand imperial territory, they will not remain silent. How do you intend to manage your relationship with the Empire?”
“Extract as much benefit from it as possible while there is still something to be gained. That is the immediate objective, is it not?”
“You do not hesitate to say things that would make any territorial lord’s stomach turn.”
“But you approve, do you not?”
“I suppose I do.”
Duke Yurei gave a faint laugh and drank.
He tried to force a smile, but the corners of his mouth refused to rise properly.
“William…”
He cautiously spoke the name.
“Why are you wasting that man’s abilities?”
Ferda was somewhat surprised.
He had never expected Duke Yurei to take an interest in William.
“In both skill and education, he would lose to no other knight. Or at least, he will not in the future. I could not understand why he is still serving as nothing more than the captain of a village guard.”
“Several circumstances became entangled, but I agree that he is an exceptional prospect. I even attempted to bring him into the service of the Valdrova Principality as a knight. William himself refused.”
“And you simply allowed him to reject you so arrogantly?”
“Would it be right to trample upon a man’s convictions? He even refused the Empire’s offer to appoint him as a Guardian Knight.”
“He rejected an imperial knighthood as well?”
“He requested that it be nothing more than an honorary title, which amounted to a refusal.”
How could one possibly entice a man who had even turned down the position of Guardian Knight?
Duke Yurei’s expression became complicated.
Ferda could only infer that the two of them had spoken at some point during the journey.
“The Empire will not pursue you any farther. Rest comfortably here for the day.”
“Thank you.”
After drinking, Duke Yurei fell asleep.
Ferda also waited quietly until the following day.
The next day, the messenger returned to Ferda’s location.
The handwriting belonged to Sigmund Heinkel, King of the Heinkel Kingdom.
His reply read:
—I will personally come to welcome my friend home.
***
Ferda and Duke Yurei arrived on a plain within the territory of the Heinkel Kingdom.
That was where the two groups had agreed to meet.
“This brings back memories.”
Duke Yurei gazed across the plain, his voice steeped in nostalgia.
“Sigmund Heinkel… We were so young then that I simply called him Sig. We used to play at being knights together on this very plain.”
“That explains why he is coming personally.”
“It is hardly a kingly decision, but I cannot say I fail to understand it. His Majesty and I have been together since childhood. We have seen one another’s faces for nearly forty years and stood together through every celebration and tragedy. He is both my dearest brother and my closest friend.”
Bitterness entered Duke Yurei’s expression.
“And yet I was captured by an enemy nation while leaving such a friend behind. That weighed heavily upon me.”
He lowered his gaze.
“I cannot express how pathetic I feel for allowing emotion to blind me to the greater picture.”
“Who could say they would have acted differently?”
Emotion stirred desire and clouded judgment.
When the sun reached its highest point, something appeared in Duke Yurei’s sight.
Flags rose beyond the hill, fluttering in the wind.
They unmistakably bore the emblem of the Heinkel Kingdom.
At the sight of that crest, Duke Yurei was overwhelmed with emotion, as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
Dozens of elite knights formed a line across the hill, proudly displaying the majesty of the Heinkel Kingdom.
When the leading standard-bearer moved aside, a middle-aged man wearing a golden crown appeared at the center of the formation.
“Perry! My oldest friend…!”
Sigmund Heinkel dismounted from his white horse and ran toward Duke Yurei.
Duke Yurei dismounted as well and walked forward.
Ferda followed behind him, studying the King of Heinkel.
So that man is Sigmund Heinkel.
Ferda could tell at a glance.
He was not a man suited to being king.
The face rushing toward them belonged to a warmhearted, kindly middle-aged man.
Perhaps that was why Ferda instinctively felt uneasy.
Suppressing his overwhelming joy, Yurei bowed respectfully.
“I cannot express how happy I am to see Your Majesty’s face again.”
“The feeling is mutual. The moment I saw your handwriting, I began preparing to leave!”
“I apologize for making you rush here in such haste.”
“My friend has returned alive. How could I sit and wait for him? But… who is this man with you?”
His presence disrupted the emotional atmosphere of their reunion.
King Heinkel looked toward Ferda as he asked.
“This is Regent Ferda.”
“Ferda? The man you told me about…?”
Sigmund looked confused as to why Ferda would be here.
Ferda merely offered a quiet bow, while Duke Yurei briefly explained the situation.
“Without the Regent’s assistance, I could never even have dreamed of escaping.”
“Ah, is that so? Then he is our benefactor. Rather than stand here, let us return to the castle. Surely we ought to hold a banquet.”
“There is no time for that.”
Duke Yurei spoke urgently.
“As you must already suspect, the Empire is manufacturing a pretext for war.”
“Yes, I have heard.”
“Now that I have escaped, we must prepare a counteroffensive. Let us summon all the nobles of the kingdom and discuss our response.”
“Ah, that matter?”
There was something strangely cold in King Heinkel’s tone.
It was only a few syllables, yet Ferda instinctively began gathering mana.
“There is no need to think too deeply about that.”
“Your Majesty? What do you mean?”
Only then did Duke Yurei feel it.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
“Yurei. We have decided not to avoid the war.”
“What are you saying? You will not avoid the war?”
Duke Yurei could not understand.
King Heinkel feared and despised the horrors of war.
How could a pacifist king suddenly steel himself for battle?
Without so much as blinking, King Heinkel said,
“The Empire wants war with us, and the neighboring kingdoms are desperate to tear pieces from our flesh. I have had much time to think while you were gone.”
“And if you choose to fight, we will all be destroyed, Your Majesty. Please reconsider—”
“Do not worry, Yurei. I possess power now. Power enough to protect the kingdom.”
“Power…?”
He raised one hand.
Duke Yurei witnessed something he could scarcely believe.
“Ah… Aah!”
A flame formed from mana blossomed over the king’s palm.
A man who had never possessed the slightest affinity for magic was now wielding it with ease.
But that was not the worst of it.
The flame was black, swallowing all the light around it.
The magic defied the natural order, yet King Heinkel smiled as he gazed upon it.
“Look at this flame. Is it not magnificent?”
Yurei could only tremble.
“Your Majesty… No, Sigmund… Did you make a pact with a demon?”
“I did not. Were you not the one who always said that demons never make deals that place them at a disadvantage?”
“Then who gave you such power?”
“The demon race.”
Yurei staggered violently.
“You… joined hands with the demons?”
“I had no other choice. But I do not regret it.”
“Sigmund…”
“Thanks to them, my eyes were opened.”
The light of reason vanished from his gaze.
“I finally understood how meaningless this mortal world truly is.”
Madness filled the place where reason had once been.
Coming to his senses, Yurei reached for his waist.
He still wore the sword he had brought for ceremonial purposes.
“Why should we endure pain merely because others misunderstand us? Why should we suffer through life for the sake of an afterlife that does not even exist?”
“Sigmund… Do not say another word.”
“A painful past. A painful present. A future filled with pain. Would it not be wonderful to cast all of it aside and live forever within a dream?”
“Please! Do not give me a reason to cut you down!”
“Yurei… my dear friend. I wish you could understand this feeling as well.”
“Sigmund!”
Yurei drew his sword and slashed at King Heinkel.
The clean strike sent the king’s head flying, and his body collapsed lifelessly beneath it.
Then something astonishing happened.
“What…?!”
The man who had been King Heinkel only a moment earlier was now a helmeted soldier.
On closer inspection, it was the helmet worn by the standard-bearer who had stood at the front.
Then where was the standard-bearer?
Yurei lifted his head.
King Heinkel now stood where the standard-bearer had been.
Holding the flag, he looked down at Duke Yurei with disappointment.
“You still cannot understand. The others were the same. Springfield and Hosho as well.”
He raised one hand.
“But once they saw what I had seen, they realized their foolishness.”
The knights behind him drew their swords in unison.
“You…”
“I will open your eyes as well.”
He lowered his hand.
The knights charged as one.
“Prepare for battle!”
“Protect Duke Yurei and the Regent!”
Ferda’s group numbered only around ten, all of them there merely as escorts.
They were hopelessly outnumbered by the fifty or more knights advancing toward them.
And that alone would have been fortunate.
“What the hell are those…?”
As the horses thundered across the rough ground, their forms gradually began to distort.
The knights’ skin darkened, while the horses’ muscles swelled grotesquely until they transformed into dozens of monsters.
In an instant, the king’s knights had become demonic cavalry.
Ferda quickly assessed their strength.
The transformed knights are Knight-class. Their warhorses are nearly as powerful.
A single demonic rider possessed enough strength to sweep away an entire infantry battalion.
“Regent Ferda…”
Duke Yurei called his name in a trembling voice.
He looked at Ferda’s face, but Ferda had not wavered in the slightest.
From beginning to end, he had remained perfectly calm.
“There is no need to worry.”
The reason was simple.
Ferda was always prepared.
“I requested reinforcements five minutes ago.”
Five minutes ago?
What good would that do now?
Duke Yurei looked around, but there was not so much as an ant anywhere across the plain.
“There is still one place you have not looked.”
Ferda pointed upward.
The blue sky.
The blazing sun.
And a single speck.
The speck turned red and rapidly grew larger.
BOOOOM!
It crashed into the middle of the demonic horde.
The impact shook the ground, causing Duke Yurei to stagger.
Did he summon a meteor?!
The Ferda Valdrova he remembered was only a Fourth-Circle mage.
Summoning a meteor would require at least the Sixth Circle.
But the object that had formed a crater in the earth was not a meteorite.
“An axe…?”
It was a colossal axe, large enough that even an ogre would have struggled to wield it.
And that was not the only thing descending from the sky.
When Yurei looked up again, a silver comet was streaking toward them.
KRA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM!
The comet arrived moments later, snatched up the axe, and charged forward without slowing.
When its figure finally entered Duke Yurei’s sight, he was left even more astonished.
The one who had caught the enormous axe was a girl far smaller than the weapon itself.
A young girl dressed in a maid uniform.
Yet the pair of horns rising from her head and the tail behind her made it clear that she was no ordinary child.
The way she gripped the weapon alone revealed that she was a veteran of countless battles.
Luri Silverwind.
Before she was a maid, she was a spawn of Silverwind and the girl once known as the Nightmare of the Frost Giants.
She plunged into the heart of the demonic cavalry and brought the axe down with all her strength.
BOOOOM!